In one of the least surprising revelations of the New Year, the BBC on Tuesday reported that President Bush's coming new Iraq strategy will feature his ill-advised "surge" of U.S. troops as its centerpiece. What is even less surprising is Bush's cynical plan to proclaim "sacrifice" as the theme of his address to the nation. […]

In the Washington Post this New Year's Day, former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke has a compelling op-ed piece ("While You Were At War...") on the dangerous and rising opportunity costs of the Bush administration's Iraq fixation. In a nutshell, Clarke argues that while President Bush and the U.S. national security apparatus have been focused like […]

As 2006 comes to a close, the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites chart has been turned upside down. In the wake of the Republicans' midterm election nightmare and the battering of the Iraq Study Group report, a bevy of GOP favorites have fallen off the list. Nowhere is the shake-up more evident than in the […]

The holiday season frequently features both selfless charity and empty gestures. For Barbara and George H.W. Bush, 2006 proved no exception. Appearing on ABC's This Week on Christmas Eve, the President's parents recalled their work over the past week ringing the bell for the Salvation Army in Houston. Calling it "the Lord's work," Bush the […]

There's an old saying it doesn't matter whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game. But as President Bush's press conference this morning shows, when its comes to saying whether or not the U.S. is winning or losing it Iraq, the White House just isn't playing the game very well. "I believe […]

While President Bush has declared that he "won't be rushed" into unveiling his new strategy for Iraq, the outlines are already clear. The twin pillars of the coming Bush approach appear to be a "surge" in U.S. force levels combined with the sacking of the generals opposed to it. Call it "Surge and Purge." Rumors […]

Since he first stepped into the Oval Office, much has been made about George W. Bush as America's CEO, our first MBA President. In the wake of the Iraq Study Group report, the nation has been eagerly awaiting President Bush's now-delayed new strategy with the baited breath surrounding a major new product announcement. But as […]

As he exits the Pentagon stage, outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shows once again that for the Bush White House, nothing succeeds like failure. In an elaborate ceremony carried live on all the cable news networks, President Bush and Vice President Cheney feted the disgraced Defense Secretary with glowing words, military pomp and even […]

On Monday, Democrats began to pay the price for the ongoing feud between Californians Nancy Pelosi and Jane Harman. In one of the first tests of her leadership, Speaker Pelosi bypassed Harman in favor of Texan Silvestre Reyes to head the House Intelligence Committee. Sadly Reyes, like candidate George W. Bush before him, failed his […]

If a period of days can be said to mark the end of the era, this past week almost surely heralded the demise of the Bush Doctrine. On Wednesday, the Iraq Study Group dealt a death blow to the Bush foreign policy's three pillars of no safe havens, preemptive war and democracy expansion. But it […]